The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco announces the opening of a new special exhibit, Nhatt Nichols: The Willapa Oyster and Its Environs. The show will run from November 8th to March 1st, 2025. A gallery talk with the artist will be held on November 8th from 5:00pm to 5:30pm. A reception will follow from 5:30pm to 7:00pm at the museum.
This exhibit will feature over 30 large format comic panels about oysters and Willapa Bay drawn by Nhatt Nichols. The show will examine the past, present, and future of the oyster, its home in the bay, and how the oyster has shaped our local communities and economies.
Nichols is a multi-disciplinary artist and poet whose work focuses on the intersections between humans, animals, and their environment. She is a 2024 Blue Sky Community Action Fellow, a 2023 Artist Trust Literary GAP Grant recipient, and a writer in residence at Seattle Public School through the Writers In The Schools (WITS) program. She frequently contributes nonfiction journalism comics to news outlets like Civil Eats, Modern Farmer, High Country News, and The Daily Yonder. Her graphic poetry book, This Party of the Soft Things, is available from Bored Wolves Press. She is currently based out of Port Townsend, Washington.
A workshop with Nichols, Documenting Our Stories: Graphic Journalism and Visual Storytelling, will be held Saturday, November 9th from 1:00pm to 3:00pm at the museum. Comics are a perfect medium for translating the world around you into something cohesive and clear. In this class, we’ll explore the fundamentals of comic creation while creating a personal comic about an aspect of your world you would like to document. The workshop is open to 6th graders through adults and is Free. Spots are limited and must be reserved by calling the museum at 360-642-3446.
Special thanks to Rural Assembly for providing financial support for this exhibit. Thanks also to Sou’Wester Arts and Dylan Jude Harrell Community Center for collaborating and providing support for the artist and workshop.